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Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Hey everyone, I am sorry I haven't been on here much lately. I've been doing a lot of trading and dealing with folks on Twitter and Facebook. And I haven't had a whole lot of motivation to write. So... with that being said, I've gone through and updated all my Trade Bait team pages with what I have left for trade (there's still a bunch!). Except for the oddball and Team USA, for various reasons.

So, stop by and take a look, let me know if you want to make any deals.

Monday, December 18, 2017

One of the guys I follow on Twitter regularly posts updates of his eBay listings and I took some time delved through them to see what Astros I could plunder. And plunder I did! I snagged me some great deals, and because we've traded several times and knew me, he accepted my offer - which was quite a bit below his asking prices!

First of all, Yuli - you signed in absolutely the wrong spot. Should have been down in that silver area... but eh, it's a nice card! HOW ABOUT THAT BUTTON!!!!! This is my second button relic and both of them are Springer cards from National Treasure. The other is from 2014, this is 2017. I love button relics, and find it odd that it took them as long as it did to start including them. This is one is /5. Next, the Joe Musgrove. I'm torn on Gold Label. I LOVE these gold framed cards, but I liked them more when they were special and /10. When they are /99 or more, just doesn't seem right. And finally, I got to add another McCullers relic to my collection. Don't see as much of his stuff as I would like in products. Topps and Panini, I expect you to correct this!!!

Sunday, December 17, 2017

The ever wonderful and elusive Wes, former writter of JayBarkerFan (and hopefully he resumes this amazing blog some day) is amazingly active on Twitter. And he did a little trade-away-a-thon a few weeks back and I claimed a few cards. Then he went overboard and sent me about a dozen more on top of those...

Wow, and this isn't even all of it! Wes, this was an awesome deal. Today, a dispatch is prepared, our agreed upon swap of goods, as well as fortifications for your upcoming march into battle. May you be victorious, or maybe I should cheer for the good favor & prosperity that will come with your defeat. Either way, I hope that my re-supply is found to be in good measure.

Saturday, December 16, 2017

I joined the fun over at Bob Walk The Plank when he announced he was organizing a card collector's Secret Santa exchange! Nothing major, just $10 bucks (ish) on cards for another collector! I was SUPER excited for the guy I got to send cards to, as I've been wanting to make a trade with him for a while, but getting to send him cards for free was even better! I was even more excited when I saw the name on the envelope that arrived with my Secret Santa gift! It was none other than our friend Jim from GCRL! Jim ran an excellent Dodgers-centric blog that ended its run in 2015, but he's still a reader and commenter on many a blog!

Here are the Secret Santa contents!

That's an AMAZING Bregman swatch #'ed /9 from Triple Threads! Beautiful in the Triple Threads format! And wow, that Biggio red swatch is HUGE! #'ed out of 50! Awesome!

Along with these two, Jim sent along a healthy stack of Astros from throughout the years - including a health amount of Gold Parallels from several years of Topps! And a nice note congratulating me and the Astros for winning the World Series! Jim, you'll definitely get a stack of Dodgers headed back your way some time soon!

Hope you all have a great Secret Santa experience! I loved mine! Merry Christmas to ALL!!!!

Saturday, December 2, 2017

So the wife and I spent a little on each other at Thanksgiving and we got some Star Wars Masterwork cards! We were very impressed and happy with the cards! They are high quality and the checklist is pretty good in terms of signers, relics and such. Here's the loot:

The top two vertical autos are the base version, the bottom two are the foil variation /50. The top horizontal auto is foil /50 as well. Then there is the silver border /10 horizontal! Man it's awesome in person, heavy! Love the auto variations and designs. Each master box has 2 autos. I feel I did pretty fair with mine, there are two more lurking lower in this post that are AMAZING!!!! I love the artist sketch card I got as well. It's a "wood" variation and I think it just looks awesome, may keep that one. Finally, the animation cels, which I think are an awesome addition to this set. They are each 1/1, and while they don't sell for a lot, I just think it's awesome to have REAL animation cels included in a product instead of another "manufactured" relic... oh, how timely...

These medallions...hmmmm... the only good thing I can say about them is that they are numbered to /150. At least there is some sense of scarcity to them. The film relics are cool too, I had hoped they would scan better, as I got some good ones with major characters showing up in each.

Ok, so now for the autos I teased! Behold!

Yea, I couldn't bring myself to remove them from the mag holders to scan them. First is Forest Whitaker and it's a gold variation /25! WOW! I was pretty happy to get this well known of an actor! Then there is the purple /10 beauty that has Gwendoline Christie and John Boyega. These are both headed to eBay eventually - I think I'm going to wait until after the 15th to post the dual auto! That is, unless one of you fellow Star Wars nerds makes me an offer I can't refuse!

Have a great day, and do yourself a favor: pick up a box or two of this product! It's well worth it!

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Good evening folks... every year my wife and I tend to go nuts over one or two products. This year we bypassed Allen & Ginter and focused in on it's bastard cardboard cousin: Upper Deck Goodwin Champions. We had a blast opening a bunch of this product! I have tons of base cards and minis if anyone needs cards to complete their set!

We'll start with one of my least favorite "hits" in this product. Manufactured "MAP" relics. At least the National Parks (bottom left) are hand numbered and limited. There really is no correlation between the map piece selected and the picture, they may be near-ish to the subject, but it's not like it was a real vintage map either. They just printed off maps and cut them up. Lazy lazy lazy work by Upper Deck. You can't claim "vintage map relic" then state "manufactured map relic" at the top of the card. It's duplicitous and just wrong. Sorry Upper Deck, you get an F- on this crap.

Next up, DOGS!

My wife and I have two dogs and two cats, they are the only "children" we'll ever have, so getting dog patches is fun. Even if they do fall under the "manufactured" hit - at least they have a theme and are collectible. I doubt I ever find anyone for those damned maps, at least there are other dog lovers out there! Of course, these are scarce based on their card number with 100 being the most scarce. The rarest from the above is #60, no fabulous, but not horrible either.

Next up, we'll enter the grand world of redundancy:

Notice a bit of a theme in the above autographs and relics? Yea, lots of hits from the same subjects in different formats! At least there aren't any true duplicates. But seriously Upper Deck, let's work on paring down the auto/relic list by reducing using the same fabric in slightly different cards. Dan Severn didn't sacrifice a onsie for this. Luckily, the Dan's will be headed to a friend in Hazel Green - the rest are all trade bait. I don't know who any of those people are!

And now for my most despised "hit" from a product that costs at LEAST $85 a box w/ 3 guaranteed "hits":

UPPER DECK: These are cool inserts. These are NOT HITS! Even the last one "Alien Black Hole" which is the "Artist Signed" Variation /25. Between the maps and these "lenticular" cards, it's a waste of 2/3 of the box if you end up with two of these. And if you happen to get a lenticular, map and dog patch, you get three "hits" that aren't worth $10 in value. Seriously, bad job Upper Deck, bad job. F- on these bastards as well.

I gotta show off these two mini's! Very cool!

The on the left is obviously of the "Cheetah" but it's also the "wood" variation /8! On the right is the 1/1 "Presidential" gold foil variation of Rudi Ying. Again, I have no idea who Rudi is, but I did read on his base card that he is a Chinese hockey player, and I'm guessing that is pretty rare. I also have a /25 John Adams Green mini variation that I forgot to scan. So, I like the way they do their mini variations - a bit different from Topp's A&G brand. Both look great and are very low numbered!

Finally, we kept busting boxes hoping to get one of the many "WWII Relics". The first one we pulled is in Colorado and I don't have a picture, but it's Lloyd Parthemer relic. The other one we pulled carries much more gravitas...

So this is one of the rarer Museum Relics that could be pulled - and it's a little disconcerting that on the back it says "Congratulations". This card represents a very dark piece of history. So, while I embrace it as part of our collection, forgive me Upper Deck if I don't feel Congratulations are in order two sentences after you describe how the SS were in charge of the concentration and extermination camps.

Overall, we enjoy the product. There are aspects that definitely need some find tuning in the way boxes are put together, etc. Of all the cards in this post, only the WWII Relic is not for trade. If you have interest in any of these or are working on any of the sets, inserts, minis or whatnot, shoot me an e-mail.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

This is a bit of a delayed package, as my LCS held a bunch of my cards for a bit. I had opened one box of Triple Threads this year and got in a couple of box breaks... I wasn't too happy with the product and well, here's what I ended up with:

Votto, Verlander, Toles, Shipley, Fulmer, Bour, Sheffield and Kiermaier. Not exactly bursting with superstars there to justify the price point, but at least some of them are hard singatures? All will be added to t he trade bait team pages.

A couple of vertical cards as well:

Well, are you thoroughly underwhelmed?

I'm working on updating the team pages tonight, so hopefully you'll see new trade bait listed soon! Let's make some deals!

Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Years ago when I met my wife, I was quickly introduced to her friend Lauren - who was married to a guy named Matt. Matt and I became quick friends, as we carried a similar passion: BASEBALL. And I kind of take credit for his getting back into the collecting game, although he had a history of it.

Anyways, Matt runs the fine blog DocHoloday. His passion in digital design, baseball and custom card making came together together recently, despite the ravages of Hurricane Harvey. Not to mention the absolute uncooperative nature of a certain custom card maker who refused to be even a little bit helpful in sharing the ins-and-outs of custom card making. Luckily, Matt is a smart and inventive guy and figured out the secrets of printing the cards and final presentation on his own through trial and error (and a bit of luck). You can see his whole process and recommendations on his blog, as he isn't quite so secretive or a jerk about it. He wants people to share in the fun, if they have a desire to do so, rather than hoard knowledge. Ok, I'll step off my soapbox now and show off some cards...

All of the cards have this placard on the back:

Pretty cool!

This is a full 5 x 7 that will probably travel with me to a signing opportunity at some point, then get framed! Next up, my two favorite 2B-men of all time!

The top two are a standard and a "diamond sparkle" variation! In the middle row is the ultra-rare Mascot variation, SP Action variation and then the standard card! Finally, the Biggios... wow, that's a standard card and then a SUPERFRACTOR variation next to it!

Finally, we have Nolan, Carlos and Bregman!

That Superfractor Nolan Gypsy Queen is even more beautiful in hand. Sorry, I screwed up and cut the scan off too far on the left side of this photo, makes it look mis-cut when they aren't!

Matt, thanks so much for these beautiful cards. I'm sure you'll see them again soon when the next TriStar show hits Houston and I bring them for autographs!

Monday, November 20, 2017

Recently, I was able to sell the 1/1 Donald Trump card that I had pulled. With it, I pulled off a massive trade with Tyler over at the twitter account @inc_ty. Along with some cash and a bunch of Team USA autographs, I was able to haul in this massive collection of hits!

ALTUVE!!!!! A sweeeeet frame auto from Allen & Ginter! Love the Musgrove autos, I know he has a bunch lately, so if any of you are looking to offload them, let me know. I'll gladly take them! Love the 5 swatch Springer relic. David Paulino spent most of the year suspended for PED's. Hoping he's just as promising a prospect when he returns next year, and if so I have some decent RC autos of his now!

This was a purchase with the remaining funds! Bregman RC graded auto for under $85? Sure. I have a feeling Alex is going to develop into a true superstar and we'll basically have All-stars at 3/4 of the infield positions for the next few years. Speaking of Bregman, below is the final piece of the trade reference above:

I know it may be hard to tell, but that's the Majestic laundry tag poking through the die-cut last name. 1/1 laundry tag out of National Treasures! SCORE! And they even got the photo done in a way that doesn't make it super obvious that they don't have the MLB license. Great job Panini.

Well, it was cool owning the Trump, but I'm much happier this this stack of loot!

Hopefully tomorrow I will get another post up, with a BUNCH of 1/1 cards that I recently obtained. Yes, I'm teasing a post, sue me...

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Hey everyone! I've got big news. I've joined up with a new card shop in Colorado Springs - The Iron Lion Collectibles. They will be offering sports cards as well as comics, MTG and all kinds of pop culture stuff. How do I fit in? Well, I'll be their official ONLINE BREAKER and blogger. We have started a new Facebook group - The Iron Lion Breakers. We will be doing live personal box breaks, draft breaks, and case breaks all via Facebook Live.

Currently we are working on getting the inventory and supplies ready to go, but I would anticipate we'll start breaking shortly after Thanksgiving. The store in Colorado Springs should open around this time as well, if any of you are in the area!

If you're active on Facebook, I would really appreciate you stopping by and asking to join the group. I plan on being live a few hours a night, 3 or 4 times a week. With all purchases shipping out the next day. Let me know if you have any questions!

Player Collection Wants

Nolan Ryan - any game used relic, auto or pre 1980 cards. I've got most of his stuff from about 81 through his last year in the league. I'd also be interested in any cards issued after his playing days were over.

Jeff Bagwell - An area of my collection is a bit sparse. I would like to add more game used and some autos as well. Again, if you have anything, I'd definitely be interested in trading for it!